Prof. Chris Eberl
Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM, Freiburg
The Digital Transformation in Materials Science & Engineering will lead to a profound change in how data, information and knowledge can be shared as well as represented. In the near future, data, information and knowledge will be available through structured knowledge graphs, allowing to use materials data as well as apps (data analytics, simulations, AI-modelling) in a seamless fashion. Collaborations within and across disciplines will be just a click away and semantic interfaces will allow us to establish complex data workflows which will be fed automatically by data from experiments and simulation tools as well as from open data repositories. Altogether, the changes will enable us to accelerate scientific discovery, which gives us and the coming generations a chance to solve the pressing challenges concerning climate change, resource scarcity and give us a realistic chance to implement a circular economy.
In the first part of this talk, the goals and realistic possibilities of ongoing initiatives will be introduced. The role of the NationaleForschungdatenInfrastruktur NFDI, and specifically the NFDI-MatWerk, as well as the BMBF MaterialDigital initiative shall be introduced and discussed.
In the second part, an introduction to practical examples from within the Fraunhofer IWM will be used to show various aspects of digitalization and their use and how it might be implemented:
- The selection and technical implementation of necessary database(s),
- Digitization of manual and (partially) automated processes in metallography,
- Structuring of a continuous data space through material ontology-based knowledge graphs,
- Use of artificial intelligence models for automated identification and representation of complex microstructures as input to material models, and
- Fusion and interpretation of data from metallography, mechanical properties experiments, and simulations.
Based on these examples, the opportunities and ToDos in establishing a common MSE data space will be discussed. Furthermore, the impact of these changes shall be discussed concerning future proposals, especially for longer lasting collaborative projects as well as proposals for the Excellence Initiative.
Chris Eberl is Deputy Director Fraunhofer IWM and Full Professor at Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials, University of Freiburg, IMTEK, Faculty of Engineering. Since 2021 he is Spokesperson at NFDI-MatWerk, since 2019 Board Member at the Innovation Plattform MaterialDigital (BMBF) and also Board Member at the “Excellence Cluster livMatS”, Uni Freiburg. Chris Eberl is member of the Fraunhofer Vintage Class.
